Slovakia baulks at joining yet another bailout

Things have regressed a bit since we had to send our surplus to Greece...

Can any member of the euro zone reasonably hope to have its credit rating upgraded at the moment? Yup: Slovakia. The plucky little country has done almost all the right things over the past decade, adopting a flat tax, selling off state industries, reforming its pension system and holding government spending steady in absolute terms, so that the public sector shrank as a proportion of GDP. Slovakia has become a model for free-marketeers around the word – see Dan Mitchell's video here, for example – and continues to enjoy one of the strongest growth rates in Europe.

Slovakian taxpayers are understandably miffed at the idea that they should be fined for running a surplus so that Greeks can be subsidised for running a deficit. Having based their own success on cutting the cost of government, they don't believe that the EU will solve its problems by taxing, spending and borrowing more. Several Slovak MPs are refusing to endorse the bailout deal unless the EU takes effective steps to get on top of the debt crisis. Opposition is led by the AECR's Slovak ally, the Civic Conservative Party (OKS). Its leader, Peter Zajac says he doesn't see how we can solve a debt crisis with more debt. When he puts it like that, it's hard to argue.